Modern vehicle seats are complex assemblies that provide not only comfortable occupant seating surfaces, but also mounting structures and locations for various other vehicle subsystem components, such as safety system components, HVAC components, entertainment components and/or seat adjustment components, to name a few. Though plastic and other polymeric materials are now very common in vehicle interiors, the underlying structures of vehicle seats continue to be constructed primarily from metal materials because of their structural nature. But as vehicle seats have become more complex, so have the metal structures. Each additional component added to a seat assembly often requires additional metal-forming operations, weldments, brackets and/or fasteners, adding further complexity and cost to the underlying structure.